Celestion Relic 30 ???????

[PlexiMan]

Has anytone heard of a Celestion Relic 30 ?? Local GC down here has them on sale for pretty cheap (may be a reason they're cheap:) and was wondering if anyone has heard of them. I don't see anything on the Celestion site either. The flyer Says they're rated at 60 watts which leads me to believe it's similar to or a variation of a V30.

[PlexiMan]

Recieved this back from Celestion on these..not that promising to me. The 49.99 price tag was inticing but not gonna bite

There is nothing formally printed on these. They are a limited run product for Guitar Centre in the US. The speakers have a sensitivity of 100dB, a resonance of around 90Hz with response up to 5kHz. The design uses a 1.75" coil with a 50oz ceramic magnet. It's quite a forward, modern voiced speaker and should give a versatile and dynamic sound. It is quite well suited to DSP type amps and multi FX, and has the ability to stay clean to quite high levels, and cope with low gain overdrive right through to screaming metal. overall the sound is tight and crisp, with treble crunch and bite and punchy bass.
Best regards,
The Doctor

[GTRroddin]

ironic that I should find this thread today. I call the local GC looking for 2 VINTAGE 30 speakers they told me to come on down they had two on sale. Turns out that they are RELIC 30's not VINTAGE 30's. So I say WTF man???? He gives me this bullshit about "oh, they are part of celestions elite vintage reissue series" so I respond with "Oh cool! Will you shovel that bullshit to my car for me if I buy them?" I informed him that celestion doesn't have a "vintage reissue series" only a HERITAGE series. He said that his boss told him that these were the most vintage speaker they had and they did have 30 on the label................I held my mouth open for a minute after that one...........I cant't believe the waist of time. GC has got to have the absolute dumbest mother F%^#ers I have ever seen.

[mightymike]

There's an air of arrogance at GC (maybe it's just prideful workers), but when combined with ignorance,
the cashiers with over sized egos get under my skin.

20-25 years ago I used to enjoy going to GC, especially the ones in the Sherman Oaks and Orange County, CA.
I have nothing against them expanding,but now they've become like the Walmart of Music Stores, with a sales
staff as knowledgeable about music equipment, as the walmart/ (new hire) oil changers are about cars. The difference being that at least the Walmart workers are polite when they over or under fill your oil and spill oil all over your cross member. ( My wife took her car there, I know better ) Many of these GC workers act like little pretentious dickhead losers you see working at some record stores, that think they're a celebrity for working there.

[JimiJames]

(*sratches head*) Not sure but, don't thet work for minimum wage plus comission ?
So they don't lie but, don't tell the truth and fabricate things a wee bit?

Maybe that's why I try to feel a salesman's personality out that is more my speed and deal with him (if I absolutely need to go to a Cigar Center.)
When they move on, I find another salesman and start the process over again.

I've been dealing with one guy now for over two years and gets me whatever I need and at Pro Discount.
These guys are people too but, if they act like dickheads they have to live with themselves.
Then you move on and find the salesman that's more "your" speed.


Jimmie K.

[kc9ejn]

I don’t want to turn this thread into an anti GC thread but I have to agree with the sentiment. I recently had a vintage Fender amplifier for sale and was getting sick of the craigslist roulette routine. So, I started contacting dealers to see what they would offer. I called my nearest guitar center and spoke with one of their associates. He seemed very knowledgeable about my amp and asked what I wanted for it. I told him $1200.00. He said “That’s a great price”. He went on to say “if we can’t match that price, we’ll at least be in the ballpark”. Long story short, I drove 65 miles to his store in order to be insulted with a $450.00 offer. Needless to say, I wrote GC and raised the roof letting them know what this nitwit had told me over the phone. The next week, I received three phone calls from his manager apologizing.
At this point, I look at 99% of GC employees as glorified fast food workers. I did manage to find one associate there that wasn’t full of shit (after I confirmed everything he told me) and I will deal with no one else there…period. However, I see guitar center as a whole to be worse than walmart in terms of blatant misrepresentation and misdirection. At least walmart associates aren’t there in your face feeding you a line of shit!

[fillmore nyc]

I don’t want to turn this thread into an anti GC thread but I have to agree with the sentiment. I recently had a vintage Fender amplifier for sale and was getting sick of the craigslist roulette routine. So, I started contacting dealers to see what they would offer. I called my nearest guitar center and spoke with one of their associates. He seemed very knowledgeable about my amp and asked what I wanted for it. I told him $1200.00. He said “That’s a great price”. He went on to say “if we can’t match that price, we’ll at least be in the ballpark”. Long story short, I drove 65 miles to his store in order to be insulted with a $450.00 offer. Needless to say, I wrote GC and raised the roof letting them know what this nitwit had told me over the phone. The next week, I received three phone calls from his manager apologizing.
At this point, I look at 99% of GC employees as glorified fast food workers. I did manage to find one associate there that wasn’t full of shit (after I confirmed everything he told me) and I will deal with no one else there…period. However, I see guitar center as a whole to be worse than walmart in terms of blatant misrepresentation and misdirection. At least walmart associates aren’t there in your face feeding you a line of shit!

+1 on that!!

Lately, as far as trying to sell shit to them, its almost like dealing with a pawn shop.


I've never heard of these relic 30's either... approach with skepticism.


(PS-Welcome to the forum, kc!!)

[SteadyEddie]

I was thinking a "relic" speaker would have holes in the cones, dry-rotted surrounds, etc...

[Ted B]

Neither a Relic 30 nor a Vintage 30 are vintage anything. The Vintage 30 was originally an attempt at recreating the classic alnico sound in an inexpensive ceramic format, which by any reasonable standards is a failure. There is nothing about these speakers that has a connection to anything Celestion did in the pre-Rola era, despite the misleading names. Show me a vintage Celestion that sounds anything like a V30 (or R30), and I'll show you a pink elephant.

This being the case, Celestion deserves at least as much criticism for misleading the consumer in such an overt fashion with names such as "Relic" and "Vintage".

[Jeff West]

I don't know nuthin' about Relic 30s, that's pretty bad for a name no matter what, though. Regarding the Vintage 30 as we know it was originally designed >25 years ago purely for the Studio 15, which was Marshall trying something a little different than their current trends then. FWIW, at Celestion I'm told that they did consider they were trying to be inspired in a vintage direction w/the V30 in that there was actually some paper in the VC former,as opposed to fiberglass or kapton that had become their most recent standards (albeit not the same paper or construction as '60s or '70s), use of a low-resonance cone and small dustcap, and other structural details that were seen as inspired by older models. OTOH they vented the first ones, so not too "vintage". Alnico was considered out of the question due to cost, no one predicted then that many would pay several hundred dollars for a new 15W single 12". Remember, the V30 was designed and ultimately retailed well before there were any RI Celestion G12M25s or H30s. Their guitar speaker adverts in 1985-86 were pushing the Sidewinder! Of course, the sound is another thing . . . but having sold literally more than a million Vintage 30 units, we probably shouldn't be looking for Celestion to eliminate the name anytime soon!

[philmanatee]

I purchased a few of the Relic 30's while they were available at GC. I had an edge treatment done on them and I thought they were a pretty good bang for the buck at $40-$50 apiece for an English made Celestion. I'm not much of a vintage 30 fan anyway, but I actually liked the relic 30's better than vintage 30's after the edge treatment. Phil

[Jeff West]

Did the Relic 30s come and go in 2006?

[philmanatee]

Did the Relic 30s come and go in 2006?

I think so.

[Jeff West]

Thanks.

After I asked, I found an old thread from 12/06 in which people were describing scooping the last new ones up from GCs for as low as $29 (pretty remarkable for a Celestion G12H!), so looks like 2006 was it.

[philmanatee]

I found one competent sales guy there that would have them sent from other stores for me for $39. Phil